


Altea Teahouse

by ShippedMyPants



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: College AU, First Meeting, Fluff, Keith is a theater major, M/M, Tea shop AU, garrison students - Freeform, lance is an astrophysics major
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 05:11:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13850796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippedMyPants/pseuds/ShippedMyPants
Summary: Keith goes to a tea shop to try and write, but meets a cute boy instead.





	Altea Teahouse

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look! I'm finally posting something new!

Fuck being creative. Whoever said just finding a place where you can sit and "let the creative juices flow" was full of shit. Keith had been sitting in this fucking tea shop for an hour and jack-shit had come to him. The back corner of a tea shop should be a good place to find inspiration, right? What's the point of being a writer if you can't do cliché shit like that and magically find something worth writing. 

Admittedly, he'd been looking at his phone half the time, and the other half his attention had been pulled by the trio of students trying to finish some sort of group project across the room. They were a distraction, the way they were trying to be quiet and studious but got easily distracted; their camaraderie drew the eye of those around them.  

The younger looking girl (or boy? It could go either way and they were facing away from him) with glasses was getting the most work done; able to participate in the off-topic tangents while still tapping away at their computer. The bigger guy, Hunk (Keith heard the other boy shout his name at some point), was trying to get work done, but kept getting pulled into his friend's antics.  

That left the third student, Lance (the other two had to shout his name in unison to get him back on topic), was constantly distracted. Talking about the song he was listening to, what he should get his sister for her birthday, how cute the barista is, and on and on. His voice was just loud enough not be disruptive, but anyone who wanted to listen could hear him; his voice carried well.  

Keith kept being drawn to him. Any time their eyes met the other boy would wink or shoot him finger guns; Keith went red every time. It didn't help that the boy was super cute; dark hair, warm brown skin, blue eyes, and a wide happy grin.  

Each time Keith blushed, it seemed to encourage the boy to flirt more. Keith wasn't used to this much attention and didn't know how to handle it. So he would turn back to his computer and sip his tea. After more unproductiveness, Keith was out of tea. Sighing, he scooted back his chair and walked back to the front counter. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw someone else get up right after him, but he didn't pay them much mind.  

"Hey Keith, ready for a fresh cup?" Allura asked, she was the barista that was usually at Altea Teahouse in the evenings. 

"Yeah, another ruby oolong, please." 

"Brewed with a little stevia, right?" 

"You got it," Keith smiled. He liked being a regular somewhere, it gave him a nice sense of familiarity.  

"Wait here a minute, I'll have it right out." She looked past him and addressed whoever was behind him in line, "Another tarro boba for you Lance?" 

"Yes please, Beautiful," Keith could hear the smile in the warm voice. 

"Alright, wait here, or I can bring it to you at your table. You three have exams coming up, don’t you?" 

Keith turned to sit at the little table behind him, finally able to sea Lance up close. And damn, that was one good looking boy, his gay heart couldn't take it. He watched as Lance reached up to rub a hand back through his hair and down to his neck, showing off his arms nicely, in a self-conscious manner.  

"Yeah, but I kinda need a break. Physics is totally kicking my ass right now." Lance turned toward the small table and addressed Keith directly with a flirty smile, "Mind if I sit with you a tick? If I have to talk about fundamental particles anymore I might actually die." 

"Uh, sure." Keith gestured toward the seat across from him.  

Lance sat down and reached out a hand, "I'm Lance, what's your name handsome?" 

Keith reached out and shook the offered hand, "Keith. Nice to meet you." 

"So, come here often?" Lance wiggled his eyebrows in a way that Keith guessed was supposed to be seductive.  

He huffed a laugh, "Weak lines aside, yeah I come here a few times a week." 

Lance gave an exaggerated insulted gasp and clutched a hand to his heart, "Weak? You're talking to a master of seduction here!" 

"Sure," Keith rolled his eyes and bit back a smile. 

Allura's voice floated out from behind the tea bar, "Lance, I'm going to have to agree with Keith here, that wasn't your best line." 

"Rude, 'llura!" Lance looked scandalized. "I probably could have come up with something better if his face wasn’t so damn pretty and distracting!" 

"You... think I'm pretty and distracting?" Keith's face started to heat up; he could feel the blush spread to the tips of his ears. Allura was giggling.  

"Uh, yeah dude." Lance was starting to blush now too, "You were making it kinda hard to concentrate on quarks and leptons."  

"I don't know what those are, but thanks I think?"  

"Oh, they're the two fundamental particles of the standard model of quantum physics. I would say it's boring stuff but its actually pretty interesting." Lance rubbed the back of his neck again in what Keith was starting to learn was a nervous gesture.  

"It sounds interesting, what kind of program are you in that requires quantum physics?" Keith asked. 

"I'm an astrophysics major at the Garrison." Lance said all nonchalant, _fuck that’s so cool? Like seriously, what the fuck. Cute and smart. Fuck this; no, fuck_ me. "What's your major? You're in college too right?" 

 _And he sounds genuinely interested too. Like he isn't the most interesting person at this table._ "I'm a theater major, English minor." Keith looked away, embarrassed and expecting Lance to frown and ask what he can even do with that kind of degree like everyone else did. 

"That so cool! So you want to go into play-writing or production management or something like that?" Lance asked with enthusiasm leaning forward to hear his answer.  

"Yeah, actually. I'm kinda surprised you could guess that; most people just assume I want to be an actor." Keith looked back and met Lance's eyes, finding that the bright blue of the boy's eyes were sparkling with interest.  

"You don't really seem like the acting type. You look like the guy who yelled at me for goofing off backstage in high school." Lance grinned. 

"Why am I not surprised?" Keith involuntarily smiled back, "You definitely would be the one making too much noise off stage." 

"I would take offence, but you're right."  

"Did you act or were you crew?" 

"Little of both. I started as crew, but one of the assistant directors caught me dancing while I was cleaning up one night and put me in the chorus for the next musical without even having me audition." Lance laughed at the memory. "She told me when the cast list went up that I had 'untapped potential' and if I didn't show up for rehearsal she'd make me mop the stage every night until the show closed." 

"And I was right, he had so much potential that he got the lead in the next two shows." Allura showed up behind them holding a mug of hot tea and a plastic sealed cup filled with some sort of purple milk.  

 _Attractive, smart, and artistic? How's that even fair?_ "That's pretty cool," he said, accepting his mug of tea, "What made you go for astrophysics instead of preforming arts?"  

"Acting was fun, but have you seen the sky?" Lance asked like it was as obvious answer to the question. 

"I have. It's pretty." Keith confirmed. 

"Pretty?" Lance gives him a weird look. "My dude, it's the best thing we have on this Earth! And at night? All of the stars out there, bringing light to the darkness; they're like beacons shining down to remind us that there's so much more out there." He gestured widely, painting the picture of a clear night sky above him. "And any time I look at them It's like they're calling me personally to get out there and discover what they have to offer. Every pinpoint of light is an entire solar system of planets beckoning me to hurry up and go get a closer look." Lance looked back to Keith, realized his passionate rambling and started to physically reel himself back in, bringing the hand he had reached out back to rub at his neck.  

"I guess I'm in astrophysics because I just need to go see for myself, you know?"  

"I think that's the perfect reason to study the stars," Keith agreed. 

Lance smiled brightly, the self-conscious edge to his demeanor fading away, "There's so much more that can go into, like the constellations and the stories behind them from different cultures. You seem like someone who would like to hear those more than the science."  

"You should tell them to me sometime then," Keith said. _Oh god, no, why did you say that? You aren't that ballsy, mission abort. Engage foot-in-mouth_ _protocol_ _._  

"I mean, if you want to. You don't have to. I can just google them or some..." 

"Yes! I mean, yeah, if you would want to hang out agai..." Lance said at the same time. 

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." Keith cut him off.  

Lance just smiled at him, at a loss for words, not that Keith was in a better boat. The pause went on for a minute before it was interrupted. 

"Alright, that's cute and everything, but Lance you need to come back and study. Hunk says you have three more chapter to go over." The younger blonde kid said from behind Lance, spooking him. 

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." Lance held up his hands in surrender.  

"Oh hey, are you Shiro's brother?" The blonde kid asked, looking at Keith. They do look vaguely familiar now that he sees them up close. 

"Uh, yeah I am. Do I know you?"  

"I'm Katie, Matt's sister, but everyone calls me Pidge," She said, holding out a hand for him to shake. 

"Oh! Yeah, Shiro mentioned he has been seeing someone named Matt. Nice to meet you Pidge." He shook her hand. "How did you recognize me?" 

"I Facebook stalked Shiro when they started dating." She grinned and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.  

"Classic. I guess we'll see each other again then," Keith said. 

"Yeah, especially if you and Lance start dating."  

"Aaaand, that's enough from Pidge," Lance interjected, starting to push her toward their table, a blush prominent on his cheeks. 

Keith was blushing too, but chuckling at Pidge; she seemed pretty cool. 

They all went back to their tables, Keith regarded his computer, an idea forming in his mind. He was about to start typing when a paper airplane hit him and fell to the ground. He picked it up and opened it to see a note. 

 **_Coffee_ ** **_this weekend? -Lance (503) 555-0145_  ** 

Keith blushed reading the note and glanced up to see a nervous Lance who immediately looked back down to his textbook. Smiling, Keith pulled out his phone, added the new number, and sent it a text. 

 **_> > It's a date _ ** **_Starboy_ ** ****  

Keith smiled and went back to his computer, a new story of a boy defending the universe fresh in his mind.  

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this in a tea shop, the first paragraph is just me projecting onto Keith. Also, this is the best tea shop. 10/10 would recommend Tea Chai Te as a cliché place to exist in general.


End file.
